[PaulKeeble]

Likes are very low bar to entry means of participation. Above that are these short form comments. But beyond that there are people responding to blog posts with other long blog posts as well discussing various things. Each level drops the number of participants but increases the potential value. When we consider that Google used to use an algorithm of how often pages were linked this is another mechanism for what likes do, its slower but its more thoughtful and the internet is all of these things at once.